Intel Desktop Extreme DX58SO2 Motherboard Review

The Intel DX58SO2 Motherboard

It isn’t that often that we have an Intel branded motherboard come across the Legit Reviews test bench. Fortunately for you, that is exactly what we have for you today! The Intel DX58SO2 X58 motherboard is part of the Intel Extreme series of motherboards. The DX58SO2 X58 motherboard is the latest and greatest motherboard from Intel for their X58 chipset.

Some may argue, that building an Intel X58 system right now, is a bit of a waste. That may be true for those that are building a brand new system as the performance of the new Intel P67 platform will dominate the scene when looking at clock-to-clock performance between the two processors. The Intel X58 Express chipset still has one major advantage over the socket LGA1155 systems though, six-core processors! If you are in need of a processor like the Intel Core i7 990X which runs six cores and an additional six threads, then the Intel X58 chipset is the only way to go, for now. Early adopters of the X58 platform also might be looking for a newer motherboard as the Intel X58 Express chipset first came out back in November 2008. That means many users out there are running the early boards that didn’t have SATA 6Gb/s, SuperSpeed USB 3.0 and many of the other features and improvements that have been made or discovered since 2008.

The Intel DX58SO2 has just about every feature under the sun. USB 3.0 and SATA 3 are both supported through discrete chips onboard the DX58SO2. The expansion slots are plentiful with three PCIe X16, two PCIe X1, and even an old school PCI slot. There is a total of eight SATA ports, two of which are SATA 3 and up to 12 USB ports! So whether you are building a office computer (perhaps a bit of overkill) or a top notch gaming rig, the Intel DX58SO2 has plenty of expansion for whatever you need!

Much of the chart below we will cover in the coming pages, but it’s always good to have it in one spot.

Now, I’m sure you have totally memorized that chart, right? No, I suppose that’s alright, like I said we will cover most of it in the next few pages. For now though, let’s move on to the retail box and bundle on the next page!